Newly purchased SEX kit

[Natural Sound]

I took advantage of a recent sale at Bottlehead and picked up a SEX 2.1 kit. I was planing on leaving the top plate natural. Unfortunately mine came with a big scratch by the power switch. Is there a good way to buff this out or am I stuck with spray painting the top plate instead?

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[mcandmar]

You would have to refinish the entire plate to match.  I put a small scratch on mine and tried brushing a section on the back with wirewool, sandpaper, cutting disks, various dremel bits and could'nt get anything like the same finish texture.  I ended up just leaving it alone and living with the scratch.  I would be curious to see how BH do it?

[Doc B.]

I finish almost all of them all myself. There is only one other person we have found who can make them look the same, and we hire him when we need to do particularly large runs of Crack panels. Doing about ten panels a day is comfortable. I have done up to 30 in a session, but it is very wearing.

I might be able to touch up a damaged plate without redoing to the whole thing, but there is no guarantee that will work and usually the whole panel would get refinished.

If I showed you how it is done I would have to kill you.

[Natural Sound]

Right, rattle can it is.

[JamieMcC]

If your going to rattle can it have at your scratch with some 240 wet and dry followed by some scotch brite or one of those nylon pan scrubbers only rub in one direction (not back and forth) in line with the graining.

There are some very nice looking brushed metal effect vinyl's available that might offer a option.

[Oberst Oswald]

Try a electric drill or, better yet a drill press, with a wire brush attachment that has the wire bristles pointing down.  You can get this product at almost any hardware store or home depot.  There are two types... hard or soft bristles.  Depending on how deep the scratch is will be the one you chose.  Should be no more than $5.00 each.  Try to keep the wire brush as straight as possible and press down without moving.  You should have a round swirl the size of a quarter or so.  Do this for the whole plate to match with a slight overlap with each swirl.  Try this on the underside of the plate first to get the feel and see the results. 

[mcandmar]

Metal burnishing, looks great but its a lot of work...

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.overthehills.com%2FRV-9A-Project%2FFirewall-Forward%2FEngine%2Fi-5w9GZTp%2F0%2FM%2FIMG_3816-M.jpg&hash=2538c069d3e3ab686c0025bd3434f2aadf2555e1)